Academic literature on the topic 'Reading difficulties'

The aim of the present thesis was to examine the cognitive and language profile in children with poor reading comprehension using a longitudinal perspective. Even though comprehension skills are closely connected to educational success, comprehension deficits in children have been neglected in reading research. Understanding factors underlying reading is important as it improves possibilities of early identification of children at risk of developing reading problems. In addition, targeted interventions may prevent or reduce future problems. Descriptions of the cognitive and language profile in children with different types of reading problems from an early age and over time is an important first step. The three studies included in this thesis have been conducted using data from the International Longitudinal Twin Study (ILTS). In the ILTS, parallel data have been collected in the US, Australia, Sweden and Norway. Altogether, more than 1000 twin pairs have been examined between the ages 5 and 15 years using well known predictors of reading, along with decoding, spelling, reading comprehension and oral language measures. In the three studies, the Simple View of Reading has been used as a theoretical framework and children who exhibited different kinds of comprehension related difficulties have been identified at different ages. The studies include both retrospective and prospective analyses. The results across studies indicated a robust oral language deficit in all subtypes displaying comprehension problems. The oral language deficit was widespread and included vocabulary, grammar and verbal memory. In addition, the oral language deficit was manifested as compromised phonological awareness and print knowledge prior to reading instruction. Reading comprehension deficits were late emerging across studies in children with comprehension difficulties.<br>Syftet med avhandlingen har varit att undersöka den kognitiva och språkliga profilen hos barn med läsförståelseproblem i ett longitudinellt perspektiv. Förståelserelaterade problem är eftersatt del av läsforskningen, trots att denna typ av svårigheter har visat sig få stora konsekvenser för fortsatt framgång i skolan. Att förstå underliggande faktorer när det gäller läsning är viktigt för att kunna identifiera barn tidigt i utvecklingen och anpassa undervisningen efter deras behov. Att beskriva barnens kognitiva och språkliga profil från tidig ålder och över tid är ett viktigt första steg i detta arbete. De tre studierna som ingår i avhandlingen har baserats på data från the International Longitudinal Twin Study (ILTS). I projektet har data samlats in i USA, Australien, Sverige och Norge. Sammanlagt har mer än 1000 tvillingpar testas vid upprepade tillfällen i åldersspannet 5 till 15 år. Testmaterialet innefattar ett stort batteri av språkliga och kognitiva tester, samt tester i läsning och stavning. Med utgångspunk i the Simple View of Reading har grupper av barn med olika typer av förståelseproblem identifierats vid olika tidpunkter i utvecklingen. Studierna innehåller både retrospektiva och prospektiva analyser. Resultaten visar en tydligt bred språklig nedsättning hos barnen med förståelserelaterade problem som visar sig tydligt i mätningar av ordförråd, grammatik och verbalt minne. Problemen är stabila över tid och visar sig tidigt i utvecklingen även som fonologiska svårigheter. Svag språklig profil påverkar inte läsförståelse förrän barnen gått i skolan ett antal år.

Previous studies have shown some students with good word recognition skills and high levels of reading fluency fail to comprehend what they read.This study examined the explicit teaching of the rule based Question Answer Response (QAR) strategies to overcome specific learning difficulties in reading comprehension. Case study methods were used on five Year 4 students in Western Australia who were at different developmental levels in reading comprehension.The study revealed that within the conceptual framework of the transactional model of reading, the Question Answer Response strategies were effective in improving literal, inferential, critical and creative comprehension at varying levels for each of the five students in the study. The strategies also proved to be an effective way to teach the resolution of anaphoric pronouns that are particularly problematic for students with poor comprehension.The study indicates that the teaching of reading comprehension skills to students with reading comprehension problems through explicit rule based instruction is an important component of classroom-based instruction in the literacy learning area.

Previous studies have shown some students with good word recognition skills and high levels of reading fluency fail to comprehend what they read.This study examined the explicit teaching of the rule based Question Answer Response (QAR) strategies to overcome specific learning difficulties in reading comprehension. Case study methods were used on five Year 4 students in Western Australia who were at different developmental levels in reading comprehension.The study revealed that within the conceptual framework of the transactional model of reading, the Question Answer Response strategies were effective in improving literal, inferential, critical and creative comprehension at varying levels for each of the five students in the study. The strategies also proved to be an effective way to teach the resolution of anaphoric pronouns that are particularly problematic for students with poor comprehension.The study indicates that the teaching of reading comprehension skills to students with reading comprehension problems through explicit rule based instruction is an important component of classroom-based instruction in the literacy learning area.

Executive functions are the constellation of higher-level control processes that enable individuals to monitor and regulate cognitive processing. Evidence regarding whether executive function deficits contributes to reading difficulties in children characterized by decoding deficits remains controversial. In this thesis, a range of executive functions were assessed in three samples of English children with reading difficulties whose performance was compared to that of chronological-age matched control children. Results from the first study showed that children with reading difficulties performed poorly in working memory and in inhibiting prepotent response. A second study replicated this finding and further established that the impairments in working memory, inhibition and dual task coordination were highly restricted to the tasks requiring processing of verbal materials. These patterns were confirmed in a third study employing a range of inhibition-related tasks in addition to measures of working memory and the dual task coordination. Overall, this work does not point to a generalized executive function deficit in children with reading difficulties. Rather, verbal executive function deficits in children with reading difficulties may arise as a consequence of their phonological deficits. Moreover, the finding that group difference in verbal executive functions persisted after the phonological deficit was taken into account gives rise to two possibilities. First, poor performance in executive function measures may surface as a function of certain task requirements, notably the combination of verbal material processing and executive demands. The possible role of phonological deficit that requires executive involvement to compensate in children with reading difficulties was proposed and discussed. Secondly, an impaired connection between the phonological processing and executive control systems may contribute to both the phonological deficits and verbal executive functions deficits among children with reading difficulties.

The primary objective of this study was to investigate the reading difficulties (problems) of Freshman EFL students attending the Department of Foreign Language Education at Middle East Technical University. The study attempted to integrate notions of strategic, linguistic, discourse and sociolinguistic competence into the construct of reading: a first approximation at integrating and applying a model of reading ability to a model of communicative language ability. To examine the reading difficulties and factors related to EFL reading, the researcher investigated the sub-competencies of reading comprehension in the following areas of Communicative Competence: linguistic, strategic, socio-linguistic and discourse competence. For this purpose, 6 reading quizzes were administered to 29 EFL readers and the results were analyzed by three different reading instructors to explore, from a Communicative Competence perspective, where the difficulties in L2 reading were experienced. The results showed that students&amp<br>#8217<br>difficulties frequently originated from discourse competence, followed by sociolinguistic, strategic and linguistic competences, respectively.

Thesis (M. Ed.) -- University of Limpopo, 2016<br>This study reflects on the teaching strategies that that teachers use to improve reading and writing in English FAL in the Acornhoek area of Mpumalanga Province. Since the study wanted to have an in-depth understanding of the strategies that teachers use to improve reading and writing, a qualitative methodology was used. It is within this methodology that a case study was adopted whereby three methods of data collection were used, namely: interviewing, observation and documents. Two schools were selected as sites for the study by means of purposive sampling. The participants interviewed included teachers and learners. The documents consulted included learners class work books, assignments and tests scripts. The researcher also observed lessons that were presented by the teachers. This study found that learners have difficulties in reading and writing, for example, they cannot punctuate, pronounce and spell words correctly. Furthermore, the study also found that teachers were not trained to deal with reading and writing difficulties. This is manifested by the strategies that they use to improve reading and writing, for example, lack of use of repetition which they claimed to use during interviews. KEY WORDS Reading, Writing, Difficulties, Strategies, Constraints, Improve